[Wasteland, where gold is buried]

The tranquility of the valley was broken again, and the uninvited guests came and came again.

This time was not like the last time, where only three cavalry sneaked in. This time, Winters led all the troops and drove into the valley openly.

The Chihe tribe's Golden Horde Guards posted sentries widely outside the valley to intercept any herdsmen and hunters who might appear.

The Tiefeng County envoys set up camp in the valley. The hoardings of the six carriages were removed for the first time since they left Tiefeng County. It was also the first time that Winters' men saw the true nature of the "mysterious cargo."

Allow:

Furnaces, crucibles, molds, refractory bricks, blast boxes, hoisting machinery prefabricated parts...

Seeing a familiar guy, a goldsmith who had repaired a horseshoe suddenly felt a sore nose for no apparent reason.

…

Long before setting off from Iron Peak County, Winters, Bud and Mason had repeatedly discussed "How can we safely recover the Golden Man?"

The three of them unanimously agreed: just exposing the location of the Golden Man would mean huge risks to the weak mission;

The wasteland is always a hostile land. The best way to deal with the golden people is to reach a deal with the Chihe tribe and exchange the golden people for gold or goods of equivalent value;

If the above plan cannot be realized, the withdrawer should be detained and... destroyed on the spot with the understanding and protection of the Chihe Department.

That's right, it's destroyed.

The golden man worshiping the sky can only be used as gold in Plato. Apart from being used to show off martial arts, it has almost no attached value.

Rather than walking around the wilderness with an eye-catching golden statue, it is better to destroy it and remelt it into gold bars to take home.

During the negotiation process with the White Lion, Winters found that the White Lion was not interested in the Golden Man, but he also realized that the White Lion did not mind providing some reasonable help in destroying the Golden Man.

In this way, the fate of the most sacred objects in the Hed tribe was decided.

…

When the tarpaulins of the last two large carts were lifted, they were filled not with tools, but with some kind of black and gray stones.

"Stone?" Someone was puzzled.

The mysterious cargo that we worked so hard to transport was just a few carts of tools? And stones?

The blacksmith from the mission stepped forward, picked out a black stone, weighed it, and turned back with a smile: "What stone? It's obviously coal!"

"Coke," Balian said softly.

"It's coke." Winters walked into the crowd of spectators holding a cane, and nodded slightly to Balian with approval: "Processed coal."

Worried about not being able to find enough fuel in the wasteland, Winters even traveled thousands of miles to bring two loads of coke. He was so fully prepared that he would never leave Heard Wasteland until he had two tons of gold.

Winters walked to the front of the crowd and glanced at his subordinates: "Have you seen enough excitement?"

"[A sprinkling of monosyllabic words expressing submission and approval]."

He smiled: "Then let's work!"

"[a suddenly combative monosyllabic word expressing submission and approval]!"

Just do it.

Charles led his men to find the wooden piles and excavated them immediately; Pierre led his men to unload the trucks and start assembling the crane; the blacksmiths and goldsmiths of the mission were busy setting up the furnace.

Winters has not publicly stated what he is digging, but those who have experienced the Battle of the Great Waste have already guessed.

As for those who joined after the first founding of the army, even if they knew nothing about the existence of the Jin people, just by looking at the mysterious attitude of the tribunes, they knew that the things underground had a lot of background.

Although the sun has already set to the west, everyone is very motivated to race against time.

Only Vashika, with his head wrapped in white cloth, approached Winters: "What are you trying to dig for? Centurion?"

Because he was a wounded person, Vashika could just be lazy.

"You...are not impressed?" Winters laughed dumbly.

Vashika felt aggrieved: "I fell that day..."

…

On the day of hunting in Qingqiu, Vashika fell from a horse and hit the back of his head. Unfortunately for his life, he only needed more than a dozen stitches. After a long sleep, he was alive and kicking again.

However, the fall was not without any sequelae. At least, he could not remember anything about the day of hunting in Qingqiu.

Afterwards, Vashika learned that the blood wolf was galloping around Qingqiu and was invincible. He also learned that the other companions followed the blood wolf and stole the limelight, and his intestines were filled with regret.

Every time he thought of his friends bragging about how they would show off their talents in Qingqiu, but he had no impression of them at all, Vashika's heart ached with pain.

So in the past few days, Vashika has been asking round and round about the details of the day of hunting in Qingqiu. However, Pierre was tight-lipped, and his friends were unwilling to discuss it in detail. His father even scolded him severely.

After much deliberation, only the first-hand information from the person involved is the most trustworthy. Therefore, whenever he has time recently, Vashika will get close to Winters, hoping to find out something.

…

Winters recalled carefully - the gold grabber, the gold buryer, and Wahika were all present. He fell down on the day of hunting in Qingqiu, so he didn't forget everything about it, right?

He looked at Vashika's happy expression and the white cloth wrapped around his head, and suddenly felt a little distressed. Because Vashika fell hard that time, and if he was a little unlucky, he might have lost his life.

But another thought kept popping up in his mind: "This kid must have fallen silly... No, he fell even more silly."

"You can remember it when you see that thing." Winters said as softly as possible: "Vasya."

Vashika nodded desperately. He actually didn't understand what the centurion was talking about, but he was flattered by the centurion's tone.

Balian was installing the bellows when Winters called him aside.

"The people from the Akagawa tribe brought the ore samples." Winters said, "Let's take a look."

The two took their horses and rode slowly out of the valley to the camp of the Red River tribe.

Winters recovered much faster than Kaman expected. He can already walk with a cane, but his limbs are still sore and weak, and he is stiff and uncoordinated when moving.

Therefore, Kaman strictly prohibited Winters from riding a fast horse. If Winters had not refused to ride in an oxcart at all costs, Kaman would not have even allowed him to ride a horse.

"Akagawa seems to have no interest in mining iron ore." Winters held the saddle tightly, trying to maintain his balance, and said casually: "It always feels a little abnormal."

"Ore needs to go through many processes before it can enter the smelting furnace. If it is just rough mining, one hundred parts of pure iron cannot be smelted. Steel can be sold far away, but iron ore is not worth buying far away. That's why it is famous

Iron smelting towns are all located near large mines. When the ore veins are exhausted, the towns will decline."

Although Balian was still taciturn, when discussing iron smelting with Winters, he knew everything and said everything: "The chief of the Red River Department must have decided that it is impossible for you to put the smelting plant in the Red River Department.

It’s a land where the ore is not worth traveling far away to buy, so we have a cold attitude.”

Winters asked: "Water transportation is also not possible?"

"I don't know." Balian answered honestly: "But I guess not. Because as far as the mining towns I know are concerned, even if water transportation is convenient, there will be no businessmen from hundreds of kilometers away to buy crude minerals."

Winters caught an unfamiliar word: "Rough ore?"

"It's the ore that's mined from the mine, mixed with rocks."

"Coarse ore is not worth transporting it over long distances." Winters was never afraid of showing his timidity in front of experts. He asked curiously: "Are there any fine ores?"

"Corresponding to coarse ore, blacksmiths generally call it concentrate." Balian explained carefully: "If the processes such as sorting, roasting, crushing, screening and even [sintering] are handed over to the Red River Department, it can be directly obtained from the Red River Department.

Hebe buys concentrates. If we take the water route, the concentrates may be worth transporting over long distances.”

"When you were not in Tiefeng County, a Mr. Leo visited me - he was a very shrewd businessman." Winters said thoughtfully: "He said, 'Only things that are profitable enough are worth trafficking long distances.

, the freight for selling the grain two hundred kilometers away is more expensive than the grain itself."

"That's the truth, Your Excellency."

"But you didn't bring it up right away." Winters sighed: "There must be something wrong."

"There are indeed some..."

"Tell me. You don't think it's possible, so I don't have any hope either."

"Concentrate is only one step away from wrought iron. If you get the concentrate, you can smelt wrought iron using an earthen furnace." Balian said seriously: "As far as I can see, it's not that the Hed people don't know how to make iron. On the contrary,

Their workmanship is exquisite.”

Winters recalled the weapons and armor seized from the Hurd tribes. Although most of them were old, there were also new ones. He also thought of the Chihe tribe's iron usage rate which was much higher than other tribes - a poor small tribe.

Stone arrowheads and bone arrowheads are still used, but everyone in the Akahawa tribe already uses iron arrowheads.

"I think." Winters smiled: "The Chihe tribe may have been secretly mining and smelting iron."

Bellion pondered for a moment: "Qingqiu is surrounded by red soil, and there really is a 'Red River' in the Red River Department. It is very likely that there are shallow iron ore veins. It is best to ask the local residents whether there were iron ore in the past.

?Or are there traces of iron smelting in the old days?”

"The Hurd tribes are moving around, but there are no local residents?" Winters laughed. After laughing, he still took a serious attitude: "I have asked the people in the Badland tribe. At least in the past few decades, there have been no local residents.

I have heard that there is an 'iron hill' in the upper reaches of the Chihe River. As for further ahead, no one knows."

"There is a possibility that after the former Hed people mined the shallow veins, they were unable to mine the remaining veins. Over time, they were abandoned and forgotten. So no one has heard of it, and no one remembers it."

Winters wrapped the reins around his fingers: "Assuming this is the case, where did the Akagawa tribe get the technology to mine deep mineral deposits?"

Balian didn't answer, he had a vague feeling that this was not a problem.

"Don't worry anymore!" Winters stretched himself on the horse and said with a smile: "Even if you have a map in a war, you still have to see the terrain with your own eyes. You can't see it on the spot. You and I can think about it here.
To be continued...